NATURE

Are You Getting Enough Vitamin N?

Researchers say nature could be the key to big mind-body benefits

Are You Getting Enough Vitamin N?Researchers say nature could be the key to big mind-body benefits

MATTHEW TURLEY

Are You Getting Enough Vitamin N?
Growing up, Teresa Bruffey was passionate about nature—passionately against it. To the self-conscious Seattle teen, the outdoors seemed dirty, scary, and uncomfortable. When she did spend time in nature, her suspicions were validated: Sand snuck into her swimsuit at the beach, chafing her skin; flies buzzed around her at picnics, freaking her out. Communing with Mother Earth, she maintained, was not her thing.

Until one day, it was. Sometime after college, a boyfriend convinced Teresa to join him on an overnight backpacking trip to nearby Kaleetan Peak. "I was terrified, panicked about it getting dark and animals lurking in the wilderness," she says. "But when I woke up, it was blue sky and mountains all around. Everything was still and beautiful. I just felt, I don't know, full."

Teresa had always been active; she'd even taken up rock-climbing—though always indoors. But after the camping trip, she began climbing outside, dragging friends along and overcoming a fear of heights in the process. "Being in nature reset my confidence and peace of mind," she says.

Intuitively, her story makes sense—remember your parents' mantra "Fresh air will do you good"? But it now also makes sense scientifically. "The vast majority of evidence points in one direction: We can be happier, healthier, and smarter if we weave more nature into our lives," says leading naturalist Richard Louv, author of The Nature Principle. He points to a surge in studies that strongly suggest a link between the outside and your insides, and that the best mind-body medicine may lie right beyond your front door.

From Green to Black
For 5 million years, humans depended on nature for just about everything, including food, shelter, and the regulation of sleep cycles, says M. Sanjayan, Ph.D., lead scientist for The Nature Conservancy. "Nature guided us in a very direct way," he says. "But in the past thousand years, that started shifting; in the past 50, it has really shifted. To think that we could adapt to that in a few generations is ludicrous."

Like Louv, Sanjayan believes humans are biophilic—that we have an innate attraction to, and connection with, nature. And that the sudden absence of nature from our lives could throw our well-being way off-kilter. In fact, the modern way of living, complete with loads of indoor time, has given rise to what Louv has coined "nature-deficit disorder," a condition that may come with adverse health effects.

For example, one study found that the farther you live from green space, the likelier you are to be in poorer health. Other research suggests that rising rates of allergies and autoimmune disorders might be caused, in part, by less exposure to healthy bacteria found in nature. Still more science has linked reduced exposure to nature to higher risk for obesity, cancer, heart disease, anxiety, and depression.

Women seem to be sinking deep into nature-deficit disorder. Per our survey, "Health Benefits of Nature," those who felt too stressed were more likely than non-frazzled women to spend a free day curled up on the couch. The picture gets worse when those stressed women actively try to relax: 54 percent plunk themselves in front of the TV, 44 percent eat, and 31 percent have a glass of wine; only 26 percent head out for a walk in the park.

Yet the cure for nature-deficit disorder—not to mention a host of other ailments—might lie in that simple walk. A whopping 86 percent of stressed-out women said their mood improves when spending time outdoors in nature. That would come as no surprise to Louv, who touts even small doses of "vitamin N" (as in nature) as a powerful protector of your body and mind.